Summer Reading
It’s strange to me to be starting summer in mid-June, but that’s how it works on the quarter system. Last week I officially completed my first year of graduate studies, and that’s means two things: First, it’s time for me to start writing my thesis and, second, that it’s time to start on my summer reading. I’ve amassed quite a stack of books to read over the past months, and my goal is to read at least a book per week all summer.
What am I reading, you ask? Here’s a list:
- The Art Lover, Carole Maso (currently reading)
- The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
- Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
- Safe in Heaven Dead, Sam Ligon (my thesis advisor)
- Cronopis and Famas, Julio Cortozar
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
I’m sure there’s going to be more (much more), since I’m reading for my thesis, but I also know I’m going to need some lighter books to break up some of the more challenging ones. Just a few days ago I finished a wonderful book about an owl (Wesley the Owl).
What are you all planning on reading this summer?
I fear your taste in literature is much more mature than mine. I just received 3 books for my birthday last week:
The Tales of Beedle the Bard (J.K. Rowling)
Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes (Daniel L. Everett)
Open Letter to Quiet Light (Francesca Lia Block)
I’m not always sure how I feel about the “great” literature. I certainly have my comfort books that I return to over and over, and sometimes I think that means more than a book I struggle through to be able to say I read. I especially like YA fantasy right now (though no vampires or werewolves).
I will be happy if I get to finish reading Dreams From My Father this summer. Then again, I am not an English major.
You also have a much busier summer than I do.
I have two books currently on my plate:
1. An American Prometheus: The life of Robert J. Oppenheimer (a biography)
2. Sweet Potato Queen’s Field Guide to Men (Julia suggested this, and said it will be hilarious;) )
If you have any fiction suggests, let me know! I need something to take my mind off lab
Kathryn, I love your reading list. Woolf is one of my favorite authors, I really respect Carole Maso as an author after reading Ghost Dance, Faulkner is great, and I enjoyed the fabulous The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I am not familiar with the other two authors on your list, so maybe I will have to check into them. I hope you’ll let us know what you thought of these when you’re done.
My current list looks something like this:
1. Samedi the Deafness by Jesse Ball (currently reading)
2. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
3. They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
4. Libra by Don DeLillo
Mo, I have some suggestions on my blog. I recommend The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov to almost anyone.
Anyway, just stopping in.
I haven’t read Maso’s Ghost Dance, but I would like to. It’s nice to find someone else who reads her; I don’t know anyone who’s even heard of her. I’ll have a review of The Art Lover up soon, and I’m currently working on Woolf, so that will be next.
And if you get a chance, let me know how Winesburg, Ohio and Libra are. I haven’t heard of the other two, though.